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Money Advice Service What Works Fund Final Evaluation Report
Institute for Employment Studies
May 2018
Institute for Employment Studies
IES is an independent, apolitical, international centre of research and consultancy in public employment policy and HR management. It works closely with employers in all sectors, government departments, agencies, professional bodies and associations. IES is a focus of knowledge and practical experience in employment and training policy, the operation of labour markets, and HR planning and development. IES is a not-for-profit organisation.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Alistair Kuechel, Chris O’Brien and Sarah Dobie from IFF Research who conducted the interim evaluation interview, follow-up survey and qualitative interviews in our participating organisations and contributed to authoring this final report.
We are also extremely grateful to the organisations who participated in this project and who generously
contributed their time and insights for the purposes of this evaluation.
Institute for Employment Studies
City Gate
185 Dyke Road
Brighton BN3 1TL
UK
Telephone: +44 (0)1273 763400
Email: askies@employment-studies.co.uk
Website: www.employment-studies.co.uk
Copyright © 2018 Institute for Employment Studies
IES project code: 01007-4518
Contents
1 Executive summary ............................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Contextual summary ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Summary of evaluation approach .................................................................................... 1
1.2.1 Summary of key findings.............................................................................................. 2 1.3 Methodological limitations ................................................................................................ 3
1.3.1 Methodological limitations ............................................................................................ 3 1.3.2 Transferability .............................................................................................................. 3
1.4 Sharing and learning activity ............................................................................................ 3
2 Overview of project ............................................................................................................... 5
3 Overview of the evaluation approach .................................................................................. 9
3.1 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 10 3.1.1 Baseline employee surveys ....................................................................................... 10 3.1.2 Interim evaluation stage ............................................................................................. 10 3.1.3 Actions implemented by participating organisations ................................................... 11 3.1.4 Follow-up employee survey and interviews ................................................................ 12
3.2 Research method summary ........................................................................................... 12
4 Key findings......................................................................................................................... 13
4.1 Building the business case ............................................................................................ 13 4.2 Assessing need for support ........................................................................................... 15
4.2.1 Design of the employee surveys ................................................................................ 15 4.3 Key findings based on MAS Financial Capability Outcomes .......................................... 17
4.3.1 Managing money well day-to-day .............................................................................. 17 4.3.2 Planning for life events .............................................................................................. 18 4.3.3 Use of credit/debt....................................................................................................... 19 4.3.4 Advice/guidance and the role of the employer ........................................................... 19
4.4 Taking the most appropriate and effective action ........................................................... 22 4.4.1 Organisation 1: Benefits roadshows .......................................................................... 22 4.4.2 Organisation 2: Pension sessions .............................................................................. 24
5 Limitations of the evaluation and future evaluation ......................................................... 26
5.1 Limitations of the evaluation .......................................................................................... 26 5.1.1 Research tools ........................................................................................................... 26 5.1.2 Project timetable ........................................................................................................ 27
5.2 Transferability of research design .................................................................................. 27 5.3 Future evaluation ........................................................................................................... 28
6 Implications and Recommendations for Policy and Practice .......................................... 29
7 Sharing and Learning Activity ............................................................................................ 32
7.1 Dissemination by IES .................................................................................................... 32 7.2 Dissemination by CIPD .................................................................................................. 33
8 Appendix for Evidence Summaries ................................................................................... 34
9 References ........................................................................................................................... 39
Institute for Employment Studies 1
1 Executive summary
1.1 Contextual summary
In January 2017, the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) launched the IES/CIPD financial wellbeing practical guide for employers1. The guide
is designed to help promote and guide effective employer actions in supporting their employees’
financial wellbeing and is aimed primarily at the HR community.
The IES What Works Fund (WWF) project worked with two large public sector organisations2, based in
England and Wales to test the key stages of the guidance, with financial wellbeing support being
delivered to employees [working age life stage] and capturing the struggling, squeezed, and cushioned
segments found within large diverse employers.
The project aimed to build a business case within each organisation for supporting employee financial
wellbeing; assess the level of support needed by employees through the launch of a baseline employee
survey; and assess the effectiveness of actions taken by looking at before and after observations
through a follow-up employee survey and interviews conducted in early 2018.
1.2 Summary of evaluation approach
The key research questions for the evaluation were to measure whether the stages of the IES/CIPD
practical tool were effective in helping to promote and guide effective employer actions in supporting
their employees’ financial wellbeing – in terms of:
■ Helping organisations to build the business case for supporting their employees’ financial well-
being;.
■ Helping employers to assess their employees’ needs for support and key variations in those needs
across their employee population; and
■ Taking the most appropriate and effective action to improve their employees’ financial well-being.
The evaluation included:
• Quantitative baseline surveys with employees (333 and 748 online responses achieved across
the two organisations respectively) conducted in Summer 2017;
1 Employee financial well-being: practical guidance 2 A third organisation from the private sector withdrew from the project in Q2.
2 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
• In-depth interviews (during September 2017 and April 2018) with five senior stakeholders from
across the two organisations;
• A quantitative follow-up survey with employees from one organisation (200 online responses
achieved) conducted in January 2018; and
• Follow-up in-depth interviews conducted by telephone with eight employees participating in
actions across both organisations.
Organisation 1 ran a series of employee roadshows in September 2017 to improve awareness of existing
employee benefits which support financial wellbeing. Organisation 2 ran pensions sessions between
March and April 2018 aimed at employees thinking about retirement.
1.2.1 Summary of key findings
■ Building a business case has to be the very first stage in the journey for organisations to help
their employees make better financial decisions. Even in working with large reputable
employers where HR staff are supportive of wellbeing initiatives, the research highlights the
difficulties in ‘selling’ the business case at senior levels and the need to have to regularly
reassert it.
■ Making the well-evidenced links between improved financial wellbeing and improvements in
productivity, employee engagement and improved corporate social responsibility reputation
can help to capture senior interest and buy-in.
■ The employee surveys were an effective tool to assess employee needs for support. The results
highlighted needs within both organisations for support of their employees’ financial wellbeing
by identifying areas where employees may benefit from support, information and guidance.
The results were also useful in helping them to get initiatives off the ground initially, and
subsequently to build a more strategic and impactful approach.
■ Over half of the employees at both organisations agreed that there was a role for their
employer to provide financial support and guidance in the workplace. One quarter of
employees in the baseline surveys felt that employers did not have a role in this area, however,
this had reduced to one-fifth in the follow-up survey at organisation 2.
■ At organisation 1, there was a significant increase in employees’ awareness of three particular
employee benefits (cycle to work scheme; voluntary employee benefits discount scheme; and
interest free loan to purchase a season ticket) showcased at the roadshows, suggesting that
the roadshows had a positive impact of increasing awareness.
■ At organisation 2, qualitative interviews with employees concluded that the pension sessions
were useful for confirming understanding of pensions in general and helped those employees
considering early retirement ‘weigh up’ their options. However, scope to build on these
sessions through the facilitation of more personalised and tailored information sessions on a
one-to-one basis was identified, which highlighted a need for better reconciliation between
meeting the needs of employees and the delivery or nature of the support. While HR
departments saw the value of a more comprehensive and strategic approach to employee
Institute for Employment Studies 3
wellbeing in which the financial aspects were incorporated, the research highlighted that
specific and focused initiatives seemed to better supported and valued.
1.3 Methodological limitations
1.3.1 Methodological limitations
• Low response rate to follow-up survey at organisation 1 attributed to short time frame between
surveys and low level of engagement of the roadshow delegates in the follow-up survey at
organisation 1.
• Lack of follow-up survey in organisation 2 as there had been insufficient time to implement
changes which would have made a measurable difference to the financial wellbeing of
employees.
• Challenges experienced with the project timetable and, in particular, the lack of sufficient time to
roll-out actions prevented the study from collecting any data about the longer-term outcomes of
the actions implemented.
• Risk that those employees who participated in the survey are more engaged in their financial
wellbeing than those who do not participate and therefore do not represent the majority of the
workforce.
1.3.2 Transferability
The employee survey design can be replicated and used by other organisations as the project
concluded that the survey approach was effective in assessing employee need for support. The
challenges caused by the project timetable provides useful learning to other organisations wanting to
implement actions in support of employees’ financial wellbeing, with the project highlighting the
extensive lead time sometimes necessary to action change in the area of employee financial wellbeing.
Organisation 2 intends to introduce additional actions in support of their employees’ financial wellbeing
over the coming months and has expressed interest in conducting a second employee survey once
employees have had the time to take up these opportunities.
1.4 Sharing and learning activity
As the IES/CIPD practical guidance is aimed at the HR community, IES will disseminate the report findings
with assistance from the CIPD using the following key methods:
• Sharing with the Institute's corporate membership programme for HR professionals in the public,
private, and third sectors.
• Blog hosted on the IES website and shared via IES social media accounts (Twitter and LinkedIn)
and via email.
4 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
• An IES News article3 and IES Perspectives essay 4.
• The CIPD has also offered to utilise its extensive network of dissemination channels to share the
learning from this evaluation. The CIPD has a network of approximately 145,000 members
globally. For example, CIPD may host a blog5 on the CIPD website, written by the report authors
and tweet a link via their main Twitter account, which has over 100,000 followers.
3 https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/news-press?category=9
4 https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/research-collections/ies-perspectives-hr-series
5 http://www2.cipd.co.uk/community/blogs
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2 Overview of project
In January 2017, the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and Chartered Institute for Personnel and
Development (CIPD) launched the IES/CIPD financial wellbeing practical guide for employers (Rickard et
al, 2017). The guide is designed to help promote and guide effective employer actions in supporting
employee financial wellbeing and is aimed at HR/wellbeing professionals. It contains guidance on:
• how to find out the type and scale of financial wellbeing problems in an organisation;
• building the business case to gain support from managers and colleagues to take action;
• possible action areas, tailored by common organisational contexts, needs, and priorities;
• how to measure and evaluate whether actions are making a difference (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Supporting employee financial wellbeing
Source: CIPD, 2017, with the permission of the publisher, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development, London (www.cipd.co.uk).
Many employers are not taking action in this area and many of those that are, may not be taking the
most effective action, and are not evaluating effectiveness. Some employers are wary of offering
financial advice to their employees due to liability concerns and lack of understanding about when
general forms of support become regulated advice; others fear it is expensive; others feel it is just not
their responsibility and cannot see the business case for action.
There is a breadth of academic evidence and policy research about the state of financial wellbeing in
the UK, which has developed a persuasive case for action in this area. For example, evidence collated in
6 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
the 2017 CIPD research report “Employee financial wellbeing: why it’s important”6, highlighted research
evidence that shows poor financial wellbeing impacts on health in terms of poor psychological
wellbeing, higher stress and anxiety levels, and lower levels of good health. In turn, this affects
productivity in terms of poorer job performance, short-term decision-making, reduced ability to
concentrate, lower productivity, and absenteeism. Studies show that:
• One in four workers report that money worries have affected their ability to do their job (CIPD,
2017).
• 19% of employees have lost sleep worrying about their finances (CIPD, 2017).
• One in three workers aged between 25 and 34 report money worries have affected their work
(CIPD, 2017).
• 55% of UK employees report that facing financial pressures affects their behaviour at work and
ability to perform in their job (Neyber, 2016; cited in CIPD, 2017).
As part of this project, three reputable organisations, based in England and Wales, were originally
targeted to pilot the IES/CIPD financial wellbeing practical guidance, with financial wellbeing support
being delivered to employees [working age life stage] and capturing the spectrum of struggling,
squeezed, and cushioned segments7 found within large diverse employers.
The project aimed to build a business case within each organisation for supporting employee financial
wellbeing; assess the level of support needed by employees through the launch of a baseline employee
survey; and support the implementation of action to address any identified needs. The project also
intended to assess the impact of any action on employee financial wellbeing by analysing before and
after observations through follow-up employee surveys conducted approximately six months after the
actions had been implemented.
Two large public sector organisations participated for the duration of the study, following a lengthy
process of securing participation and some false starts with a number of large private sector
organisations interested in taking part in the evaluation. Of the participant organisations, one employs
3,300 staff nationally and another employs approximately 2,000 staff across England and Wales.
Unfortunately, during the second quarter of the project, a third pilot organisation (from the private
sector) withdrew from the study. The key reasons for this withdrawal were linked to failure to get
adequate buy-in from the senior team following the business case proposal:
■ The concept of financial wellbeing was something that, as leaders, they did not perceive to be their
role to have a stake in.
6 https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/employee-financial-well-being 7 MAS research has grouped people in the UK into “segments”, based on differences in financial resilience. This is in order to
understand how consumer needs differ and identify the areas of greatest need. More information is available in “Market Segmentation:
An Overview”, available at: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/corporate/research
Institute for Employment Studies 7
■ The leader’s view was that financial wellbeing was very personal and whilst they could see some
value in providing tools to provide assistance, they were not supportive of finding out about their
employees’ financial capability, which was viewed as ‘too intrusive’ a move.
In order to mitigate the impact of the loss of this private sector organisation, IES identified a financial
services sector organisation that had used the IES/CIPD financial wellbeing practical guidance to
conduct a survey of its employee financial capability in June 2017. Learning from this organisation was
captured for this report to add the experience and perspective of a private sector employer and is
included as a case study in the report Appendix.
Within both of the participating public sector organisations, significant project delays were also
experienced which impacted the project’s ability to achieve its original outcomes.
Organisation 1: The baseline employee survey was delayed due to purdah caused by the snap general
election in June 2017 which meant that the follow-up survey was only conducted three months after
action had taken place, rather than the intended six months. This impacted on the project ability to
measure change over time.
Organisation 2: Slower than expected action implementation meant a follow-up employee survey was
not deemed possible by the project stakeholders. It was felt that there had been insufficient time to
implement changes which would have made a measurable difference to the financial wellbeing of
employees. In order to mitigate the loss of survey data from this project change, a sample of employees
who had participated in the financial wellbeing action (pension information sessions) were interviewed
to qualitatively capture their views and experiences.
Figure 2 below shows the project’s Theory of Change. The impact of the above project delays had
implications for our Theory of Change and meant changes were made to the achieved outcomes and
impact of the project.
8 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
Figure 2: Theory of Change
Institute for Employment Studies 9
3 Overview of the evaluation approach
The key research questions for this evaluation were:
Overall, are the stages of the IES/CIPD practical tool effective in helping to promote and guide effective
employer actions in supporting their employees’ financial wellbeing? In terms of:
● helping organisations to build the business case for supporting their employees’ financial
wellbeing;
● helping employers to assess their employees’ needs for support and key variations in those
needs across their employee population;
● taking the most appropriate and effective action to improve their employees’ financial wellbeing.
The evaluation was intended to complement existing research that suggests there is poor financial
wellbeing in the working population and financial worries are a key source of stress in the workplace. A
third of employees state that financial worries are currently their biggest concern (Neyber, 2017) and
higher levels of financial stress can result in higher absenteeism which damages productivity (WTW,
2016), with 8 per cent of the UK workforce admitting to taking time off work due to financial stress
(Neyber, 2016). Moreover, 6 per cent of employees report having had health issues due to money
problems (CIPD, 2016). Poor employee financial wellbeing also adversely affects employee stress levels,
with estimates of the cost of financial stress on the UK economy being around £120.7bn (Neyber, 2016).
At the same time, it is estimated that 17.5 million working hours are lost due to absence from financial
stress (Neyber, 2016).
Significantly, poor employee financial wellbeing also negatively affects employee productivity levels: for
every £1m an organisation spends on payroll, there is an estimated four per cent loss in productivity due
to poor employee financial wellbeing (Barclays, 2014). In a similar vein, surveys at four US organisations
estimated that fatigue related productivity losses cost $1,967 annually per employee (Rosekind et al.,
2010). Crucially, according to the latest CIPD employee survey, 25 per cent of employees state that
money problems have affected their ability to do their job, while eight per cent have spent time during
the working day dealing with money problems and 10 per cent have found it hard to concentrate/make
decisions at work due to money worries (CIPD, 2016).
The employee surveys conducted in our two participating organisations highlighted similar experiences
and need for support. For example broadly between a quarter and third of employees reported that
financial worries had impacted their job performance; and their health; between 15 and 20 per cent had
lost sleep due to financial worries; and around 10 to 15 per cent had found it hard to concentrate at
work as a result of financial worries.
It is clear from the evidence that the need for employer action to improve employee financial wellbeing
is both proven and urgent, given the adverse effects that poor employee financial wellbeing has on
both the individuals and their employing organisations (eg through higher absenteeism and lower
10 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
productivity levels). At the same time, there is also a strong ethical argument that supporting employee
financial wellbeing is ‘the right thing to do’ (CIPD, 2017).
3.1 Methodology
The project used the following research methods:
3.1.1 Baseline employee surveys
A baseline employee survey in each participating organisation, hosted and analysed by IES, to assess
employee need for support and their current level of financial wellbeing. The baseline survey explored:
■ Financial wellbeing measures – comprising dimensions such as being able to cope with household
bills, not being anxious, or having savings for the future;
■ Financially capable behaviours – the behaviours that employees exhibit or the actions they take, for
example, saving regularly, keeping track of finances, or working towards longer-term goals;
■ Financial enablers and inhibitors –the things that make behaviours or financial wellbeing either
easier or more difficult for employees to achieve. They encompass attitudes and motivations and
skills and knowledge such as confidence in talking to those who could give advice.
The survey design reflected the MAS Financial Capability Outcomes Framework for Adults8, which
describes the key elements of financial capability for adults and is part of the UK Financial Capability
Strategy9. The core elements are: managing money well day-to-day; planning for life events; use of
credit/debt; and advice/guidance. Within the latter theme, the survey also explored the role of the
employer in supporting employees’ financial wellbeing. The baseline surveys were similar in both
participating organisations, with variations in questions only linked to differences in existing employer
financial wellbeing provisions and organisation specific variables. The surveys were live for three weeks
and the response rates were 15 per cent in organisation 1 and 17 per cent in organisation 2.
Demographic variables were collected in the survey responses including gender, age group, location of
work, and job grade. Analysis of the survey results were conducted on each of these variables for the
baseline survey, however, it was only age group which showed any particular and consistent differences
in responses.
3.1.2 Interim evaluation stage
An interim evaluation stage, conducted in September 2017, involved face-to-face interviews (conducted
by IFF Research10) with senior managers with responsibility for the organisations’ pay strategy and
employee rewards. These managers also had the project responsibility for building the business case for
8 See https://www.fincap.org.uk/outcomes_adults 9 https://www.fincap.org.uk/uk_strategy 10 https://www.iffresearch.com/
Institute for Employment Studies 11
supporting their employees’ financial wellbeing and for guiding decision-making about what actions to
implement in relation to supporting employee financial wellbeing.
The managers were invited to participate in paired or group interviews about their views on the
effectiveness of the baseline survey for assessing employees’ support needs and any challenges they
had faced in implementing the survey and any actions. In total, five senior stakeholders participated in
this stage of the evaluation and an interim report was produced for MAS.
3.1.3 Actions implemented by participating organisations
The IES/CIPD practical guidance suggests a range of different actions that organisations can take to
improve employees’ financial wellbeing. For organisations starting out in supporting employees financial
wellbeing, these include reviewing pay and benefits policies and communications, as well as providing,
or signposting to, financial information and guidance. For organisations more advanced in their
wellbeing provisions, possible actions include running financial education days; partnering with an
external provider to deliver a holistic financial education programme to staff; or linking financial
wellbeing messages to HR systems in order to harness significant employee life events such as
promotions, taking of maternity/paternity leave etc.
Following the baseline employee survey, organisation 1 ran a series of employee roadshows to improve
awareness of existing employee benefits which support financial wellbeing. The roadshows were held in
September 2017 over six locations and featured the Money Advice Service Edenred (employee benefits
provider), the Cycle to Work Scheme and the Civil Service Charity. The roadshows were widely
promoted across the organisation via the intranet, posters and all staff email invitations.
‘It was really about what’s going to save people money, going and getting advice, and we also had
someone talking about pensions at each of the roadshows.’- Employee Benefits Lead
Organisation 2 was keen to move the organisation on from its current role of signposting, to one of
facilitating access to advice. The organisation was already signposting to financial information via its
intranet, but was particularly concerned with the needs of their ageing workforce and the spike in
retirements they tended to experience at the end of each financial year. Therefore, organisation 2 ran
pensions sessions between March and April 2018 aimed at employees thinking about retirement. The
sessions were run by a representative from the Department of Work and Pensions and MyCSP, who
administer the Civil Service Pensions arrangements. During each session, between 15 and 30 employees
were guided through the different civil service pensions schemes; the benefits employees were entitled
to; and given guidance on pension calculations. A session activity also encouraged employees to work
out whether their incomings in retirement would cover their expected costs. Attendees were also
offered an opportunity to have a one-to-one discussion about their pension following the session.
About 80 employees participated in the sessions overall.
12 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
3.1.4 Follow-up employee survey and interviews
A follow-up survey was completed at organisation 1; hosted and analysed by IFF Research in January
2018; some four months after the organisation had rolled out its roadshows showcasing the employee
benefits on offer to all employees. This follow-up survey repeated a selection of questions from the
baseline survey to measure change over the period and also included a new selection of questions
focused on the roadshows. The survey also asked whether respondents had attended a roadshow in an
attempt to establish a control group of employees that had participated in the financial wellbeing action
(eg attended a roadshow) and those that had not. Only 7 per cent of respondents to the follow-up
survey had attended a roadshow. In order to supplement the data obtained about the effectiveness of
the roadshows, telephone interviews were conducted with employees who had attended the
roadshows.
As organisation 2 decided not to conduct a follow-up survey due to delays in the action implementation
stage, telephone interviews were conducted with four employees who had attended a pension session;
about one month previously.
3.2 Research method summary
The table below illustrates the research methods we used to capture our project outcomes:
Table 1: Research methods used to capture project outcomes
MAS WWF Outcome Research method
Change in mindset/attitudes Pre and post intervention survey
Increased awareness/understanding of
financial issues/support relevant to them
Pre and post-intervention survey and
employee interviews
Increased access to financial IAG Post-intervention employee interviews
FinCap Behaviours:
Managing money well day-to-day
Preparing for and managing life events
Use of credit/debt
Pre and post-intervention survey
Institute for Employment Studies 13
4 Key findings
This section focuses on answering the main research questions by bringing together data from the
baseline surveys, interim evaluation phase and follow-up survey data. Where possible, any significant
changes in employees’ attitudes and behaviour between the baseline and second survey are discussed
for organisation 1. However, it is worth noting that the surveys were completed within four months of
each other, which is a relatively short timeframe for measuring any change. It was not possible to
conduct subgroup analysis of the follow-up survey data due to small base sizes; however notable
differences by age group are recorded where relevant in relation to the baseline survey data.
We first examine how the organisations built the business case for supporting their employees’ financial
wellbeing before examining the effectiveness of the surveys for assessing employees’ needs. The final
section seeks to evaluate the success of the actions taken by both organisations to improve their
employees’ financial wellbeing.
4.1 Building the business case
A key stage of the IES/CIPD practical guidance in supporting employee financial wellbeing is building a
business case to gain support from managers and colleagues to take action. This evaluation has
highlighted the need for this to be the very first stage in the journey for organisations to help their
employees make better financial decisions. It is required earlier than the tool anticipates; with senior
leaders needing to be reminded of the importance of employee financial wellbeing (EFW) to approve
any engagement in this area.
For key stakeholders to understand and value the need to support employee financial wellbeing, it is
important to create a business case which is specific to the organisational context. Business case
presentations were developed in collaboration with the project stakeholders, including the third private
sector participant in the early stage of the evaluation. These presentations were delivered to the senior
management teams of each organisation and used material and evidence included in the IES/CIPD
practical guidance. Key sections of the business cases included:
• What is employee financial wellbeing and how does it fit within our organisation?
• Why attention needs to be paid to employee financial wellbeing (the scope of the issue; benefits
for business and employees);
• Expected stages of the intervention including example employee survey questions;
• The associated costs and risks of engagement.
Both organisations in this evaluation reported that it was relatively straightforward to make a business
case because the concept of financial wellbeing fits well into other organisational work streams. For
14 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
example, stakeholders at organisation 1 highlighted that general wellbeing was considered a core
organisational value and the organisation had an ethos of caring, linked to the nature of their work.
In the public sector, the 1% pay cap, which has been a key part of the Government’s austerity
programme since 2010, has been a major challenge to employee financial wellbeing. Stakeholders were
aware there were some employees who not had a pay increase in real terms for many years and felt the
organisation’s role should be about supporting employees to help their money go further. Their aim
was to demonstrate that, whilst this activity could not directly affect pay levels, they could improve
financial wellbeing by getting employees to maximise their earnings through fully accessing the benefits
offering available to them.
‘Obviously, the whole point of employee financial wellbeing is not about telling people what they
need to have, it’s not about whether you’ve got a high salary or a low salary, it’s about knowing
the best way to get the best out of what you do have.’ – Employee Benefits Lead, Organisation 1
‘This is a way to engage people better, motivate and talk to people about why, although their pay
isn’t going up, you’re still supporting them.’ – Rewards Lead, Organisation 2
Among the organisations which participated, and also within those organisations that expressed interest
in the evaluation at the time of securing participants, the desire of organisations to be seen as ‘leading
edge’ on this and to strengthen their employment brand was seen as a key element of the business
case. The evaluation also found that there was a lack of understanding of the current state of
employees’ financial wellbeing; with engagement or reward surveys currently not covering this area and
any existing actions had tended to be seen as financial education and ‘add-ons’ to total rewards.
Fortunately, both participating organisations found senior directors were immediately on board with this
intervention and willing to engage; seeing financial wellbeing as part of their existing broader wellbeing
strategy:
‘We didn’t have to really build a case for change because this plugged into an already existing
strategy, so it was a great opportunity… We’re almost pushing an open door on it... rather than
generating something from scratch.’ – Project Lead, Organisation 1
From the project outset, both organisations were aiming to utilise and increase awareness of the
existing benefits package and improve how it was perceived by employees. This had been highlighted
as an issue at organisation 1 following results from the Civil Service People Survey; an annual survey
conducted among 400,000 civil service employees. Only 26 per cent of employees reported that they
were satisfied with the overall package. This organisation also saw themselves as a test case to roll out
similar initiatives on financial wellbeing across the wider public sector.
The timing of the project was also an advantage for one organisation. They were expecting a significant
increase in workforce size over the next few years and so the project acted as an opportunity to
implement new processes that it could then roll out across an expanded workforce.
The experience of the private sector organisation case study (included in the Appendix) also provided
some insight into what works in building an effective business case to gain support for providing
Institute for Employment Studies 15
financial wellbeing support to employees. The lessons from this case study concerning building a
business case were essentially:
-Making the well-evidenced links between improved financial wellbeing and improvements in
productivity, employee engagement and improved corporate social responsibility reputation can help
capture senior interest and buy-in. Interest in “being ahead of the curve on supporting and improving
employee financial capabilities” can help secure senior support.
-A champion is pivotal at the senior level and in HR/Reward to secure buy-in and support for actions on
improving financial wellbeing.
- Providing a definition of financial capability/wellbeing to senior level (and to employees) is an
important stage to ensure engagement.
4.2 Assessing need for support
A further key stage of the IES/CIPD practical guidance is finding out the type and scale of financial
wellbeing problems in the organisation. The guidance suggests conducting an employee survey to
understand what issues employees face. The guide also recommends thinking about employees in
terms of different characteristic groups, such as age, gender, grade or earnings bracket in order to
target efforts, time, and resources in ways that will maximise the benefit to employees.
The evaluation explored views on these employee baseline surveys to assess the need for employee
financial wellbeing support, as well as how useful the approach was for identifying potential areas for
support.
4.2.1 Design of the employee surveys
Feedback from stakeholders was that the baseline employee surveys had worked well as a tool to assess
employee need for support. One organisation particularly stated that the survey was a unique
opportunity to understand what were employees’ concerns related to financial wellbeing and what they
could do as an employer to help.
Each organisation, however, held differing views on how receptive their employees would be to
participating in a survey on financial wellbeing. One organisation felt that there was a culture of trust in
the public sector that meant employees would recognise the survey was being conducted in their best
interests and would therefore be willing to participate. Employees were also familiar with workplace
provision of information and guidance concerning their wellbeing, which would have warmed them up
to such an exercise. Stakeholders anticipated that there would be more suspicion in the private sector.
For example, employees might question whether it was a move linked to curbing pay rises or embarking
on redundancies.
‘There’s less of that feeling [in the public sector] of “Why are they asking me to do this?” and “Why
do they want me to fill that in?”… They trust it because it comes from us.’ – Project Lead,
Organisation 2
16 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
However, the other organisation felt that there was potential for some level of reluctance to share
personal details about financial wellbeing.
‘For me it’s about those sensitivities. That this isn’t about digging into people’s private lives. This is about
best signposting individuals, to start off with, to sources of advice and guidance to enable them to make
the best decisions for them personally.’ – Project Lead, Organisation 1
There was also some concern among senior management that employees might think survey responses
would be used to feed into pay negotiations. Both employers wished to exclude direct references to
employee reward in the baseline survey to avoid employee expectations that this examination and
support of their financial wellbeing would lead to pay increases. The private sector case study also
highlighted a similar concern and stated that conducting an employee survey on financial wellbeing
raised concerns amongst management that the survey may imply that the organisation is promising
action. However, the use of the IES/CIPD practical guidance was said to have “helped to legitimise and
build the business case for conducting the employee survey”.
Despite some initial concerns that employees might be suspicious about why the survey was being
conducted, none of the stakeholders reported receiving negative feedback from employees about the
survey. Both participating organisations had also expected to receive comments on their intranet pages
where the survey was hosted, but this did not occur. Furthermore, whilst some stakeholders were unsure
about how willing employees would be to talk about their financial situation, both organisations were
satisfied with the baseline survey response rates (15 per cent and 17 per cent respectively). For one
stakeholder, this response rate added real ‘weight’ to their data. Notably, the private sector case study
achieved an even higher response rate11 (31 per cent).
The employee qualitative interviews also concluded that employees felt the topics were straightforward
to answer and employees were generally comfortable about providing this information to their
employer. A few employees stated that they initially had concerns about the level of personal detail
about their finances that they would need to share but these fears subsided after they had read through
the first few questions. Some employees also mentioned that they were compelled to take part because
they felt financial wellbeing was an important issue in the workplace.
“It was upfront, it said we are going to be asking some personal questions . . . I felt quite comfortable, I
trusted that my personal information would be kept in strict confidence so I had no problem [participating
in the survey].” – Employee, Organisation 1
11 Participation was encouraged through the offer of a charity donation for every completed response.
Institute for Employment Studies 17
4.3 Key findings based on MAS Financial Capability Outcomes
4.3.1 Managing money well day-to-day
The baseline and follow-up survey results highlighted needs within both organisations for support of
their employees’ financial wellbeing by identifying areas where employees may benefit from more
support, or areas where they would like more information, advice, and guidance.
In the baseline survey, over a quarter of employees (30 per cent and 27 per cent at each organisation
respectively) reported that they were only ‘just about getting by’ financially and though most employees
agreed that they felt in control of their finances, around a fifth of employees disagreed, highlighting a
need amongst some employees for financial wellbeing support.
Similarly, whilst about half of employees felt that they could do things to make a difference to their
financial situation, (consistent with the findings of the 2015 UK Adult Financial Capability Survey),
sizeable proportions (about a third of employees), thought nothing they did would make much
difference to their financial wellbeing, with the largest groups in both organisations holding this attitude
being within the youngest cohorts (see Table 2), which highlighted the need for education and support.
Table 2: Agreement with statement ‘Nothing I do will make much difference to my financial situation’, shown
broken down by age (%)
Organisation 1 Baseline Organisation 2 Baseline
Age group Age group
25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+
Agree 57.1 33.3 36.9 17.7 33.3 28.2 32.7 30.9 22.6
Neither 14.3 7.7 10.7 14.5 16.7 14.1 10.0 16.3 19.4
Disagree 28.6 59.0 52.4 67.7 50.0 57.7 57.3 52.8 58.1
Source: IES
The two core areas which all employees, across both organisations, felt would most improve their
financial wellbeing were:
■ being able to save for the future – this was especially important to the youngest cohorts; and
■ being able to comfortably pay off existing debts – across all age groups but this was of the least
concern to those aged 55+.
Among the next most commonly reported areas were: a benefits package that helps employees to save
money; staff benefits that protect respondents and their families should they fall ill; and access to flexible
working.
18 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
4.3.2 Planning for life events
Almost three-quarters of employees at both organisations said that they worry to some extent about
their current household’s financial situation (72 per cent and 74 per cent). Furthermore, this financial
worry was reportedly impacting the health of around three in ten employees a little or a lot (29 per cent
and 32 per cent) with variation shown by age, although in one organisation the youngest cohort
reported the greatest health impact of financial worry (see Table 3).
Table : My health is suffering as a result of financial worries (%)
Organisation 1 Organisation 2
Age group Age group
25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+
No, not at
all
57.1 59.0 48.1 58.7 77.8 56.4 55.0 52.2 64.5
Yes, a little
bit -
28.2 31.7 28.6 5.6 26.9 24.3 33.7 19.9
Yes, a lot 14.3 5.1 7.7 1.6 5.6 2.6 6.3 5.6 3.8
Source: IES
Around three-fifths of employees (63 per cent and 62 per cent at both surveys at organisation 1, and 57
per cent at organisation 2) reported they were able to save money every or most months, which was
broadly consistent with the 2015 UK Adult Financial Capability Survey at 56 per cent; with the majority
paying into a savings account or ISA (55 per cent and 64 per cent). The proportion of all employees that
rarely or never saved money ranged from 18 per cent to 24 per cent.
Although most employees were saving on a regular basis, there was a clear need for more information
and guidance at both organisations around pensions saving. Over half of employees did not know if
their retirement income would meet their needs (51 per cent at both organisations) and over half
agreed that pensions seemed so complicated that they could not really understand the best thing to do
(53 per cent and 56 per cent). Around a third agreed that dealing with pensions scared them (31 per
cent and 35 per cent).
Only small proportions of employees (5 per cent at organisation 1 and 6 per cent at organisation 2) had
increased how much they were paying towards their retirement income in the last six months.
In the follow-up survey at organisation 1, where employees reported either checking whether their
income would be enough to meet their needs in retirement or had increased the amount they had paid
into their pension, this was most commonly because they were thinking about retirement or nearing
retirement age (26 per cent), or had reviewed their annual pension statement (19 per cent). The next
most common reasons were that they were worried that their pension may not be enough (14 per cent)
or because they wanted a degree of financial security (14 per cent).
Institute for Employment Studies 19
4.3.3 Use of credit/debt
At both organisations, the proportion of employees reporting that they were keeping up with their
financial commitments without any difficulties (43 per cent and 45 per cent) was lower than the UK
average shown in the 2015 UK Adult Financial Capability Survey (59 per cent). However, there was some
variation in the proportion of all employees that reported experiencing some degree of struggle (22 per
cent and 39 per cent respectively). Analysis by age group showed that in one organisation, it was the
youngest cohort who were most commonly falling behind (14 per cent of 25-34 year olds); whereas in
the other organisation, responses were more varied across the age ranges (see Table 4).
Table 4: Ability to keep up with financial commitments shown by age (%)
Organisation 1 Organisation 2
Age group Age group
25-
34
35-
44
45-
54 55+
16-24 25-
34
35-
44
45-
54 55+
Falling behind 14.3 5.1 3.8 1.6 - 1.3 4.5 1.7 1.6
It is a constant
struggle -
10.3 16.3 14.3 5.6 10.3 13.5 18.5 8.1
It is a struggle from
time to time
42.9 23.1 24.0 22.2 50.0 35.9 30.6 26.4 23.1
Keeping up without
any difficulties
14.3 56.4 51.0 58.7 22.2 51.3 46.8 49.4 61.3
Don't have any bills
or credit
commitments
28.6 5.1 1.9 3.2 22.2 1.3 3.6 2.8 5.9
Source: IES
4.3.4 Advice/guidance and the role of the employer
Across both organisations, the most common sources of money advice used by employees in the last
six months were:
■ the internet (47 per cent and 39 per cent);
■ friends or relatives (27 per cent and 24 per cent);
■ accountants, bank managers or other financial advisors (18 per cent at both organisations).
There were no statistically significant differences in the use of different sources of money advice
between the baseline and the second survey at organisation 1.
Around two-fifths of employees (37 per cent and 41 per cent) had not sought any money advice in the
last six months, though over half agreed that they would make better financial decisions with the help of
20 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
advice (51 per cent and 53 per cent). About a third of employees thought that seeking financial advice
seemed too daunting (38 per cent at the baseline survey; 33 per cent at the follow-up at organisation 1,
and 34 per cent at organisation 2).
The largest proportions of employees stating that seeking financial advice seemed too daunting in both
organisations were among the youngest cohorts (86 per cent of 25-34 year olds in one organisation; 61
per cent of 16-24 year olds and 43 per cent of 25-34 year olds in the other organisation), with the oldest
cohorts (55 years +) being the least daunted by seeking financial advice (around 30 per cent in both
organisations) (see Table 5).
The follow-up survey in organisation 1 asked employees why seeking financial advice seemed daunting
(asked of those who held this view). Most reported they do not know whom to trust (79 per cent) and
at least half were worried they would be mis-sold something, or they thought advice would be
expensive (56 per cent and 50 per cent respectively). The next most common responses were that it was
perceived to be hard to find the right advisor (42 per cent); and that financial advice is only for people
with complex financial affairs (21 per cent).
Table 5: Seeking financial advice seems too daunting, by age (%)
Organisation 1 Organisation 2
Age group Age group
25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+
Agree 85.7 46.2 35.9 30.6 61.1 43.4 30.0 31.8 29.5
Neither 14.3 10.3 21.4 22.6 16.7 14.5 20.9 23.3 15.3
Disagree - 43.6 42.7 46.8 22.2 42.1 49.1 44.9 55.2
Source: IES
A key finding from the surveys was the degree of employee appetite for employer support with financial
wellbeing. Over half of employees at both organisations agreed (56 per cent at the baseline survey and
61 per cent at the second survey at organisation 1, and 56 per cent at organisation 2) there was a role
for their employer to provide financial support and guidance in the workplace. One quarter of
employees in the baseline surveys felt that employers did not have a role in this area, however, this had
reduced to one-fifth in the follow-up survey at organisation 2. There was very little variation in
responses to this question by age.
Employees taking part in the qualitative research commented that they felt financial wellbeing was a key
element of wider employee wellbeing, and most therefore felt that their employer had a role in
delivering this to ensure the workplace is happy, to try and prevent stress, and to reduce sickness days:
“My employer has a responsibility to look after staff welfare. Not just the physical health, but
financial health, mental health.” – Employee, Organisation 1
“Having workplace support from your employer … is a great benefit and is a perk which will attract
people into the civil service.” – Employee, Organisation 2
Institute for Employment Studies 21
The surveys were also useful for giving both organisations an indication of particular areas where
employees were keen to receive support. At both organisations, employees were ‘most interested’ in
receiving financial education on the topic of retirement and pensions (76 per cent at the baseline and 79
per cent at the second survey at organisation 1, and 66 per cent at organisation 2). The next most
commonly selected topics were savings and investments and wills and estate planning.
Table 6 shows the top three topics of interest for each age group. In organisation 1, savings and
investments appeal most to the youngest cohorts; with pension and retirement guidance most popular
among the older age groups. At organisation 2, pensions and retirement was of most interest to all age
groups.
Table 6: Top three topics most interested in receiving advice/guidance from employer shown by age
group
Age group
16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+
Organisation 1 1. Savings &
Investments
1. Savings &
Investments
1. Pensions &
Retirement
1. Pensions &
Retirement
1. Pensions &
Retirement
2. Tax 2. Tax 2. Mortgages 2. Tax 2. Savings &
Investments
3. Employee
Benefits such
as salary
sacrifice/
childcare
vouchers
3. Mortgages;
Financial
planning;
Budgeting;
Employee
benefits such
as salary
sacrifice/
childcare
vouchers
3. Employee
Benefits such
as salary
sacrifice/
childcare
vouchers
3. Wills &
Estates
Planning
3. Wills &
Estates
Planning
Organisation 2 1. Pensions &
Retirement
1. Pensions &
Retirement
1. Pensions &
Retirement
1. Pensions &
Retirement
1. Pensions &
Retirement
2. Mortgages 2. Savings &
Investments
2. Tax 2. Tax 2. Savings &
Investments
3. Employee
Benefits such
as salary
sacrifice/
childcare
vouchers
3. Employee
Benefits such
as salary
sacrifice/
childcare
vouchers
3. Employee
Benefits such
as salary
sacrifice/
childcare
vouchers
3. Wills &
Estates
Planning
3. Wills &
Estates
Planning
Source: IES
22 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
4.4 Taking the most appropriate and effective action
This section discusses the different actions taken by both organisations and the perceived effectiveness
by employees, drawing on survey data12 and feedback from qualitative interviews with employees.
4.4.1 Organisation 1: Benefits roadshows
The benefits roadshows were considered a success by stakeholders because they were felt to have
raised employees’ awareness of the benefits offering within the organisation. The follow-up survey also
showed a small (six per cent) increase in employee interest in receiving more information on employee
benefits.
Stakeholders reported that feedback from employees about the roadshows was positive and they
seemed particularly engaged with the Money Advice Service information stand. In the qualitative
interviews, some employees commented that before attending the roadshows they were not previously
aware of the Money Advice Service resources available within the benefits portal, but have since found
them to be useful; whilst others did not fully understand some of the financial benefits on offer (see
Case study 1 below).
This feedback was also reflected in the follow-up survey data which suggested that the roadshows were
effective in raising awareness of the employee benefits on offer. For example, half of employees (50 per
cent) who had attended a roadshow reported that they had learned something about the benefits they
have access to as an employee, with two in five reporting they learned a lot of new information.
Furthermore, at both the baseline and the second survey, all employees were asked about their
awareness and usage of financial wellbeing support. In the second survey, there was a significant
increase in all employees’ awareness of three employee benefits suggesting that the roadshows and
associated communications have had a positive impact here:
■ There was a 31 percentage point increase in the proportion of employees who were aware the
organisation offered a salary sacrifice scheme for ‘Cycle to Work’ (from 51 per cent to 82 per cent);
■ There was a 16 percentage point increase in the proportion of employees who were aware the
organisation offered a voluntary employee benefits discount scheme (via Edenred) (from 60 per
cent to 76 per cent);
■ There was a 9 percentage point increase in the proportion of employees that were aware the
organisation offered an interest free loan to purchase a season ticket (from 64 per cent to 73 per
cent).
12 In the second survey conducted among employees at Organisation 1, seven per cent of the 200 participating employees reported that
they had attended an employee roadshow. It is therefore worth noting that the analysis of related questions has been conducted on a
very small base size (14 employees)
Institute for Employment Studies 23
Whilst awareness of the employee benefits on offer had increased among all employees, there had not
been any change in the level of usage of these benefits reported three months after the roadshows
took place.13
Case study 1: Employee roadshow attendee
Employees in the qualitative interviews also frequently suggested that they would like to receive more
information, advice and guidance about their pension (which was also reflected in the survey data) and
had some concerns that they did not know enough about their current pension. This is a topic that the
organisation has identified as an area to develop in the future, and there was particular appetite to have
lunchtime talks or an opportunity to meet with an adviser on a one-to-one basis:
“What I want is proper pension counselling, I think it should be available to everyone and we’ve
never been offered that before . . . We need that. . . If you’re not a pension’s expert, not many
people understand pensions . . . I really think we need some help with this.” – Employee,
Organisation 1
13 The employee roadshows took place in September 2017 and the second survey was conducted in January 2018.
24 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
4.4.2 Organisation 2: Pension sessions
The qualitative interviews with employees highlighted that the pension sessions were useful for those
who wanted a reminder about how pensions work and in confirming their understanding of their
pension. One employee recommended the session to her colleagues who said:
“It was quite useful. It was good to confirm my understanding [of my pension]” - Pension session
attendee, Organisation 2
However, other employees felt that the forum in which the sessions were delivered was not suitable for
the discussions they wanted to have, for example, how they would be taxed, and whether it would be
beneficial to buy extra years to boost the value of their pension. One employee commented:
“No-one wanted to talk about it . . . they [the facilitator] said each pension is different for each person
there. And it’s not the type of thing you want to talk about in a public forum.” - Pension session attendee,
Organisation 2
Employees understood that the DWP representative would not be able to give advice, and employees
commented that they would like the opportunity to talk to an independent financial advisor on a one-
to-one basis.
This highlighted an opportunity to build on these sessions through the facilitation of more personalised
and tailored information sessions, on a one-to-one basis.
Institute for Employment Studies 25
Case study 2: Impact of attending a pension session
26 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
5 Limitations of the evaluation and future evaluation
5.1 Limitations of the evaluation
This section highlights some of the methodological limitations of the evaluation approach used.
5.1.1 Research tools
Some stakeholders commented that the baseline employee survey length was too long, taking 15-20
minutes to complete, which may have lowered the response rates. Stakeholders, however, recognised
that the length was necessary to explore all the different topics and outcomes desired. One organisation
also noted that it was unfortunate the survey needed to be delayed due to purdah caused by the snap
general election and felt it could have achieved a higher response rate if the survey had not been
conducted during peak holiday season. It should also be noted that the scheduling of the survey had to
fit within existing employee surveys/communication schedules which were centrally controlled.
Within organisation 1 the response rate was lower than that achieved during the first survey (9 per cent
cf. 15 per cent at the baseline survey) despite the same methodology being adopted. This was possibly
because employees are generally busier in the last financial quarter of the year or maybe because
employees were less inclined to take part in a repeat survey only four months after participating in the
first. Despite the lower response rate, there were few signs of response bias. When the achieved profile
of the two surveys was compared, the only difference was that significantly more male employees took
part in the second survey, and correspondingly fewer female employees (at the baseline survey 38 per
cent of respondents were male; compared to 47 per cent in the follow-up survey).
There is also a risk in running an employee survey on financial wellbeing that those employees who
participate in the survey are more engaged in their financial wellbeing than those who do not
participate. Therefore, the views of a majority of the workforce population are not known and
assumptions have to be made on support needs based on the observed views of those already
engaged (eg. non-response bias).
Some caution may also be needed in the interpretation of the employee survey responses, particularly
to the more sensitive questions eg. concerning financial worries and the impact on job performance;
concentration; time off work etc, due to employees’ potential unwillingness to honestly disclose such
information to their employer.
In organisation 1, the low level of engagement of the roadshow delegates in the follow-up survey (7 per
cent) also impacted the reliability of the findings for the third part of the research question, due to
conclusions being drawn based upon a small sample. It also meant the difference needed to see a
Institute for Employment Studies 27
statistically significant change between surveys was relatively high (with differences +/-5% and +/-9%
required to see a statistically significant difference).
In addition, answering the third research question was also impacted by the lack of a follow-up survey
in organisation 2. We were only able to assess the effectiveness of the pension sessions through
gathering the views of a limited number of employees who participated in the sessions. Therefore
caution is required in the interpretation of the usefulness of these sessions.
5.1.2 Project timetable
Stakeholders in both organisations mentioned that they would benefit from having more time to
implement actions linked to improving employee financial wellbeing than the timescales of the project
allowed; ideally having at least a whole financial year to determine what action to take and implement it.
They felt this was largely because of the complexities of making changes within public sector
organisations.
Stakeholders in both organisations also highlighted that trying to implement changes within the public
sector can be difficult and subject to delays. Organisation 2 commented that any additional funding
needed for financial wellbeing actions would need to be secured six months before a new financial year.
The challenges with the project timetable and, in particular, the lack of sufficient time to roll-out actions,
also prevented the study from collecting any data about the longer-term outcomes of the actions
implemented.
5.2 Transferability of research design
The employee survey design can be replicated and used by other organisations as the project
concluded that the survey approach was effective in assessing employee need for support and provides
a unique opportunity to understand employees’ concerns related to financial wellbeing and what
employers can do to help; with no negative feedback received from employees about the survey
approach. This suggests that this approach could be transferrable to other parts of the public sector
and beyond.
The senior stakeholders from both organisations were also positive towards the two-stage evaluation
approach ( ie. a baseline survey with a follow-up survey to measure the impact of any workplace
interventions to improve financial wellbeing), with the caveat that a sufficient period of time is allowed
between surveys in order for employees to take up support opportunities.
The challenges to the evaluation caused by the project timetable provides useful learning to other
organisations wanting to implement actions in support of employees’ financial wellbeing, with the
project highlighting the extensive lead time sometimes necessary to implement actions. These delays
were also reflected in the private sector organisation case study, which advised that organisations need
to be mindful of the time needed to action change in the area of employee financial wellbeing:
“Even in organisations with strong support and commitment to implementing financial wellbeing benefits;
getting IAG in place and then getting employees engaged in it can be a long process” – Case study
organisation
28 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
5.3 Future evaluation
Organisation 1 is in discussions with an external portal provider to provide employees access to a suite
of simple-to-use calculators; financial modelling tools and links to sources of advice and guidance. The
portal also provides usage data which is considered valuable in order to understand employees’ needs.
Linking with such a partner is seen to have cost benefits as well as bringing new expertise to the
provision of employee financial wellbeing support. The organisation would also like to continue the
roadshows on a regular basis. The organisation would also like to run annual financial welllbeing surveys
to enable the employer to track the use of the new portal and the impact of additional roadshows. Any
favourable results could then be used to justify the spend to the Executive Committee.
Organisation 2 intends to introduce additional actions in support of their employees’ financial wellbeing
over the coming months and has expressed interest in conducting a second employee survey once
employees have had the time to take up these opportunities. Launching a second survey in, for
example, 2019, would allow data to be collected about the longer term outcome of the actions and
impact on employees’ FinCap behaviours and attitudes/mindsets.
Institute for Employment Studies 29
6 Implications and Recommendations for Policy and Practice
There are a number of key learnings from this evaluation, of particular relevance to the HR community,
in terms of delivery of employee financial wellbeing support:
• The importance of support from the senior team within the organisations for assessing the
employee need for financial wellbeing support and for taking action was an ongoing message
throughout the project, particularly in the early stages, with senior stakeholders ultimately acting
as the gatekeepers for engagement. Without their endorsement for activity in this area, it is clear
that any financial wellbeing strategy HR may wish to implement will not be realised.
• There is an appetite among employees for financial wellbeing support from the employer and
organisations perceive financial wellbeing to be ‘more than just about salary’. However,
evidence shows that the majority of organisations are still not providing financial support to
staff.
• There will inevitably be sensitivities around assessing employee need for financial wellbeing
support by asking about employees’ attitudes and behaviours towards personal finances. Both
the public sector organisations participating in this evaluation and the private sector case study
encountered delays in their employee survey design and launch due to stakeholder concerns
about employee perception and potential suspicion of the survey and its intention eg. whether
employees might question whether it was a move linked to informing pay negotiations or
curbing pay rises etc. These senior management concerns, it is worth stating however, were not
realised.
• In larger organisations, conducting a survey to assess employee need for support and to take
any targeted actions often requires collaboration and the support of the internal
communications team. The communications team can also help to simplify the messaging for
employees around financial wellbeing to ensure good levels of engagement.
• An audit of all relevant activity, across different parts of a business, could highlight various
strands of existing financial wellbeing support within the organisation (eg. various financial or
wellbeing benefits; an Employee Assistance Programme that offers debt counselling etc) and
require repackaging and communication under an “employee financial wellbeing” umbrella.
• In addition, organisations may identify opportunities to work with external providers to deliver
financial education programmes to employees, especially those that can tailor their provision to
match the needs of employees and the organisational context.
• Whilst the IES/CIPD practical guide recommends segmenting employees by various factors in
order to target interventions appropriately, age was the only factor which highlighted particular
30 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
differences in survey responses across the respondents. This is likely broadly linked to the
particular financial challenges experienced at different life stages and is therefore a useful
demographic to initially use to target interventions.
• Whilst the employee survey is an effective tool to highlight the areas or topics which employees
are interested in receiving support with, the evaluation highlighted a need for better
reconciliation between meeting the needs of employees and the delivery or nature of the
support. For example, a need for pension support was identified by the baseline survey within
organisation 2. This support was offered and targeted to those in most immediate need (eg.
those close to retirement). However, participants felt there would have been more value in
offering one-to-one opportunities rather than information in an open employee forum. This
perhaps suggests that once an area of support has been selected, more employee engagement
is required to ensure appropriate delivery.
• The employee surveys highlighted that there is most demand among employees for support
with traditional benefits eg. pensions. Therefore, for organisations starting out in supporting
employees financial wellbeing, ‘easy wins’ may be found in initially focusing efforts and
resources on traditional initiatives which build awareness, such as pension roadshows, rather
than attempting to get senior support for more innovative solutions such as employee loan
providers.
• There is currently a real lack of evaluation in this area but a strong interest in ‘getting strategic’
on this to better understand needs and integrate initiatives to deliver best impact and cost
effectiveness.
For MAS and the wider financial capability community, a key observation is that there is interest in
implementing financial wellbeing strategies within organisations in both the public and private sectors.
We engaged with a number of organisations from different industries and sectors in the early stages of
the project in an attempt to secure evaluation participants and they each had particular interests in
supporting employee financial wellbeing. In turn, there is a good degree of employee demand for
employer support and involvement in individuals’ financial wellbeing, as highlighted by the evaluation’s
employee surveys.
Whilst there is strong evidence for the business case for support, there is less evidence around the
actions that organisations are currently taking in this area and in particular, whether these actions are
effective in improving employee financial wellbeing. This evaluation contributes some evidence to this
area, yet a broader audit of effective practice in organisations and available external support would
highlight opportunities for employers and provide more guidance to those employers wanting to make
investments or change in their employees’ financial wellbeing. It could also prevent employers
reinventing the wheel by creating their own employee financial education programmes rather than
accessing existing resources.
The evaluation also highlighted that getting actions going on financial wellbeing and sustaining them
within organisations is challenging. More progress may be made by supporting HR with further tools to
help them build and regularly reinforce the business case for providing this type of support. Further
evidence of other employers acting on employee financial wellbeing; evidence of employee demand
Institute for Employment Studies 31
and need for the support; related organisational success stories; and addressing the ‘myths’ and
misplaced concerns associated with implementing financial wellbeing strategies could help progress the
concept within the workplace.
Activity between IES and the participant organisations is not planned to continue beyond the conclusion
of the WWF programme. Both organisations, however, intend to continue to develop their financial
wellbeing strategies and support internally and IES would be happy to offer further support and
guidance.
The IES/CIPD guidance is publically available and therefore any organisation could conduct a similar
project using the four stages of the guidance (building a business case; assessing employee need; taking
action; evaluating and embedding action). IES and IFF Research offered independence to the employee
surveys in the participating organisations which some employees may value particularly considering the
potentially sensitive nature of the questioning. However, our private sector case study conducted the
survey internally, without external support, and achieved an excellent response rate; which supports the
wider application of the guidance.
The development of the IES/CIPD guidance in 2017 was supported by an additional output, also
authored by IES, which collated the academic and policy work in the area of financial wellbeing and
aimed to encourage stakeholders such as employers, government, and reward, benefits, and financial
education providers, to consider what they can do to help improve financial wellbeing. This report was
referenced in the CIPD’s submission to the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Treasury on the
creation of a single financial guidance body14 and was also referenced in the CIPD response to the
Financial Reporting Council proposed revisions to the UK Corporate Governance Code.
The report highlighted that a “tripartite approach is required in tackling the risks of financial wellbeing
and filling the financial education gap. – employers cannot just leave it to government to solve or
assume it is a personal responsibility of employees to address on their own” (CIPD, 2017: 24). This
evaluation also supported the notion of a tripartite approach to improving the financial wellbeing of the
working age population. It highlighted the appetites of employees for intervention and support; and of
employers to deliver this support to employees. There is, however, also a role for government– firstly, in
supporting employers to deliver effective financial wellbeing interventions. For example, by signposting
employers to the different advice sources available; or raising awareness of the kinds of support that are
regulated and unregulated; and by providing greater guidance in this area, especially for small and
medium-sized organisations in which there may be even more concern about raising employee
suspicions through employer interventions linked to financial wellbeing. Secondly, there is potentially a
government role in encouraging individuals to take greater personal responsibility for their financial
wellbeing. The CIPD report, for example, explores whether government could promote national financial
wellbeing within broader public health strategies to promote a cultural shift towards improved financial
wellbeing. This would certainly help to create a more positive context for general financial wellbeing
support of the UK working population
14 https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/cipd-submission-on-a-single-financial-advice-body_tcm18-18487.pdf
32 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
7 Sharing and Learning Activity
As the IES/CIPD practical guidance is aimed at the HR community, IES will disseminate the report findings
with assistance from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
7.1 Dissemination by IES
IES has an HR Network which is the Institute's corporate membership programme for HR professionals
in the public, private and third sectors. The network currently has in excess of 30 members15; the
majority of whom are public sector organisations which we expect will be interested to read about the
relevant experiences of the two public sector organisations that participated in this study. The aim of
disseminating to this target group is to increase awareness of the guidance and this evaluation and
increase the number of employers taking action in the area of financial wellbeing. We will also share the
summary report with the Civil Service Employee Policy part of the Cabinet Office, to whom IES has links.
This body has close links to all civil service departments and may be able to disseminate the report
further to other potentially interested parties.
At least one blog, written by this report’s authors, will also be hosted on the IES website and shared via
IES social media accounts (Twitter and LinkedIn) and via email.. An IES News article16 will also be written
by this report’s authors and the IES communications team, and will be hosted on the IES website. This
news article will summarise the main findings of the report on the day of publication and will include a
link to the full summary report and IES/CIPD guidance.
Each year, IES also publishes a series of essays offering its experts’ perspectives on the challenges facing
HR in the given year17. These articles cover a wide range of important HR and employer topics and are
informed by IES research and employer consultancy work. As part of this series, IES will write an essay
based on the learning from this evaluation, for dissemination in July 2018. This will include a press
release sent to relevant HR and national press; social media posts from IES and associated accounts;
emails sent to the IES mailing list and key partners/sector contacts; and inclusion in the final collection of
essays published in late 2018/19.
IES will also share a summary of this evaluation report with the HR practitioners, policymakers and
behavioural science experts who participated in workshops during the development of the guidance18.
15 https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/hr-network-membership/member-list 16 https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/news-press?category=9 17 https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/research-collections/ies-perspectives-hr-series
18 Participants included: Bank Workers Charity, Barclays, Behavioural Insights Team, British Heart Foundation, Citizens Advice
Bureau, Close Brothers, Coral, Diabetes UK, Home Office, KPMG, GSK, Guys and St Thomas Hospital NHS Foundation Trust,
Institute for Employment Studies 33
These individuals belong to key interest groups and they will be encouraged to disseminate the tool and
the evaluation report further within their own organisations to extend the reach of the guidance,
alongside the report evidence that the guidance model is effective.
7.2 Dissemination by CIPD
The CIPD has offered to utilise its extensive network of dissemination channels to share the learning
from this evaluation. The CIPD has a network of approximately 145,000 members globally.
CIPD may host a blog19 on the CIPD website, written by the report authors and tweet a link via their
main Twitter account, which has over 100,000 followers. The involvement of CIPD, as the professional
body for HR and people development, is likely to promote the report to a wider audience, from whom
we can expect engagement and further social media shares. There may also be a potential for
conducting a podcast on the topic of financial wellbeing and sharing the findings from this evaluation
within the podcast.
Maitland Consulting, Metropolitan group, Money Advice Service, McDonalds, Nudge Global, Pensions Policy Institute, Squirrel
Financial Wellbeing, Toynbee Hall, Quiet Room, Warwick Business School, Wealth at Work
19 http://www2.cipd.co.uk/community/blogs
34 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
8 Appendix for Evidence Summaries
8.1 Private sector case study
In order to mitigate the impact of the loss of the private sector organisation early in the evaluation, IES
identified a financial services sector organisation that had used the IES/CIPD financial wellbeing practical
guidance to conduct a survey of its own employee financial capability in June 2017, independent of the
WWF project. A representative of the organisation was interviewed by IES in February 2018 and learning
from this organisation has been captured for this report to add the experience and perspective of a
private sector employer.
8.2 Introduction
The multi-site organisation which has around 3,000 staff used the IES/CIPD employee survey template
to design a survey of financial capability amongst its employees. The organisation has always placed an
emphasis on financial education for its customers and perceived there to be an overlap between the
delivery of customer and employee education.
The employee survey received a response rate of 31 per cent after leaving the survey open for seven
weeks during summer 2017. An offer of a £1 donation to charity for every employee that completed the
survey was also made to encourage participation.
The respondent profile reflected well the gender, location and age profile of the whole organisation,
however, analysis of responses by different demographics showed that age was the only relevant factor
in identifying real differences in responses.
The experience of this private sector organisation in using the IES/CIPD practical guidance and
engaging in supporting employee financial wellbeing has provided some insight on the main themes
below:
8.3 Assessing employee need for support
Overall, the survey measured:
Employees’ attitudes towards financial wellbeing; employees’ knowledge and skills related to financial
wellbeing; and their willingness to access information and guidance to help manage their money.
In summary, the survey found that:
- Some 28 per cent of employees said that money worries had affected their ability to do their job
in some way. Broken down by age group, the largest proportions stating money worries had affected
Institute for Employment Studies 35
their ability to do their job were within the youngest cohorts; 32 per cent of those aged 30-39 years and
28 per cent of those aged 20-29 years.
- Some 72 per cent of respondents agreed that they were very organised when it comes to
managing money day to day, but some 21 per cent said they were not very organised (however, this
figure is much lower than comparable statistics in the MAS 2015 Financial Capability survey – 42 per
cent) . Those aged 50 years and over agreed most that they are very organised managing money day
to day.
- Some 77 per cent of respondents agreed that they felt in control of their finances, but 15 per cent
did not feel in control. Broken down by age group, the lowest proportion feeling in control of their
finances were aged 20-29 years (70 per cent).
- Some 82 per cent of respondents felt confident about making decisions about financial products
and services, but 16 per cent did not. Of those least confident, the highest proportion were aged
between 20 and 29 years. Overall, comparable figures from the MAS 2015 financial capability survey
were much higher which can perhaps be attributed to the sector knowledge held by individuals within
this financial services organisation; although the workforce profile is diverse.
- Respondents were asked what the main barriers were to them managing their money as well as
they would like:
o 41 per cent stated the hassle involved such as in switching energy supplier or changing bank
account was the main barrier. This was more of a barrier for those aged between 30 and 49 years than
for other age groups;
o 31 per cent stated finding the time to manage their money was the main barrier;
o 26 per cent said they only earn enough money to get by each month; expressed most commonly
by those aged 20-29;
o 23 per cent said they prefer to spend rather than save; again expressed most commonly by those
aged 20-29.
-Respondents were also asked if they would like their organisation to provide access to financial
information/guidance in the workplace and if so, what topics would be of most interest. The majority
(66%) of respondents stated they would like their employer to provide this information (these were
mostly aged 30-59 years) and the most popular topics were:
o Savings and investments (63 per cent)
o Pensions (48 per cent)
o Financial planning (40 per cent).
Other topics respondents said they would like to know more about included power of attorney, stocks
and shares ISAs, student loans, inheritance tax planning, and the finances they should have in place for
their children.
36 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
The majority of respondents stated they would like to receive this information/guidance through online
tools and guides (73 per cent).
Overall, the employee survey highlighted the following key points for each age profile:
Table 1: Key findings by age profile
20-29 year olds 30-39 year olds 40-49 year olds 50-59 year olds
Most confident about
their financial security
over the coming year
Most likely to say
money worries have
affected their ability to
do their jobs
Most likely to feel in
control of their money;
Least likely to feel
financially insecure;
Least confident about
making financial
decisions
Least likely to feel very
organised when it
comes to managing
their money
Most likely to think
their involvement in
financial services
provides an advantage
when it comes to
managing their own
finances
Least likely to say
money worries have
affected their ability to
do their jobs
Regard only earning
enough money to get
by each month as the
main barrier to
managing their
money well
Least likely to save
every month
Regard the main
barrier to managing
their money as well as
they would like as the
amount of hassle
involved in changing
providers/suppliers
Topics of most interest
for more
information/guidance
were retirement,
savings & investments
and pensions.
Twice as likely as any
other age group to
want to know more
about managing
credit and debt.
Regard the main
barrier to managing
their money as well as
they’d like as the
amount of hassle
involved in switching
accounts/providers.
8.4 Building the business case
The experience of this private sector organisation also provided some insight into what works in building
an effective business case to gain support for providing financial wellbeing support to employees:
Institute for Employment Studies 37
-Making the well- evidenced links between improved financial wellbeing and improvements in
productivity, employee engagement, and improved corporate social responsibility reputation can help
capture senior interest and buy-in. Interest in “being ahead of the curve on supporting and improving
employee financial capabilities” can also help secure senior support.
-A champion is pivotal at the senior level and in HR/Reward to secure buy-in and support for actions on
improving financial wellbeing.
- Providing a definition of financial capability/wellbeing to senior level and to employees is an important
stage to ensure engagement.
-Similar to the experience of our public sector participants, conducting an employee survey on financial
wellbeing raised concerns that the survey may imply that the organisation is promising action. However,
the use of the IES/CIPD practical guidance was said to have “helped to legitimise and build the business
case for conducting the employee survey”.
8.5 Taking actions
This case study also provided some learning into ‘what works’ around taking actions on supporting
employee financial wellbeing:
-In larger organisations, conducting an employee survey to assess employee need for support and to
take any targeted actions often will require collaboration and the support of the internal
communications team. The communications team can also help to simplify the messaging for
employees around financial wellbeing eg. simply using the word “money” may be more effective and
engaging for employees than discussing personal “finance”.
-At the case study organisation, employee benefit entitlement changes with a promotion to another
grade or upon reaching certain length of service milestones. Targeted messaging to these individuals to
remind them of their changing entitlement is a useful tool to ensure employees make the most of what
is offered to them.
-A measure of the most effective actions to support employee financial wellbeing should be how
successful efforts are in involving employees who were not previously engaged in aspects of their
financial wellbeing; for example, advancing understanding of pensions among those whom consider
their knowledge to be lacking etc.
-This organisation’s employee survey was conducted to measure employees’ current level of financial
capability rather than as a tool for tracking change by conducting the survey again at a later time.
However, the organisation does maintain regular dialogue with employees by:
-signposting employees to relevant existing in-house and customer focused financial materials. For
example, it encourages employees to access information produced for customers eg. personal finance
guides; newsletters; and online information hubs;
-posting articles on the intranet on financial education themes (highlighted by the employee survey as
of most interest) and using analytics packages to measure content engagement such as time spent
38 Money Advice Service What Works Fund: Final Evaluation Report
reading the content; numbers finishing reading the article; etc, to gauge the level of employee interest
in the topic;
-inviting employees to email questions related to personal financial themes that are then answered by
in-house experts.
However, this organisation does note that the more information/education you host for employees in a
central hub, the more has to be maintained and updated to reflect external change eg. in policy etc.
-The overlap between the delivery of customer and employee education achieved by this organisation
highlights a core action for similar organisations. An audit of relevant activity across different parts of a
business could highlight some easy wins for supporting employee financial wellbeing as support may
already exist but needs to be repackaged and communicated under an “employee financial wellbeing”
umbrella. In a nutshell, it could be argued, if an organisation is providing this support for its customers;
why can this not be done for its staff?
Institute for Employment Studies 39
9 References
Barclays (2014), A Summary of Financial Well-Being: The Last Taboo in the Workplace?,
https://wealth.barclays.com/content/dam/bwpublic/global/documents/shared/financial-wellbeing-
report.pdf
CIPD (2017), Employee financial well-being: why it's important, Research Report, January 2017. Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development.
Neyber (2017), The DNA of Financial Wellbeing’ Report 2017,
https://www.neyber.co.uk/resources/dna2017
Neyber (2016), The DNA of Financial Wellbeing’ Summary Report 2016,
https://www.neyber.co.uk/financial-wellbeing
Rickard C, Spiegelhalter K, Cox A, Brown D (2017), Employee financial well-being: practical guidance,
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Rosekind, M., Gregory, K. and Mallis, M. (2010) The cost of poor sleep: workplace productivity loss and
associated costs. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Vol 52, No 1. January. pp91–8.
Willis Towers Watson (WTW) (2016), Employee Health and Business Success - Making the Connections
and Taking Action, Global Research Summary
Recommended